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The embracement of technology or innovation is often a paradox. While promising to be better, safer and more efficient, it often confounds and can lead to diametrically opposed behaviours by surgeons. Besides resisting the utility, there may be vocal opposition of its application as it nullifies and possibly makes tried and tested techniques obsolete. There are multiple historical examples of this, especially in the realm of minimally invasive surgery (MIS).

When the first laparoscopic colorectal surgery was performed in my old department in the 1990s, it took a good part of the entire day (approximately nine hours). In 2005 and 2006, the department made a concerted effort to embrace this, and every consultant and associate consultant pushed, learnt and toiled.